Psychology in a New Tempo: Instances and Consequences of a Cult of Celerity

This article presents a critique of psychological, disciplinary, and cultural propensities to favor speed of thought and action over other considerations, a propensity which warrants the designation "cult of celerity. " Certain cultural manifestations of a cult of celerily are briefly discussed A number of areas of illustrative psychological inquiry are examined-heuristics, the satisficing principle, the role of haste in social behavior--each of which documents the occurrence and the costs of velocity in human thought and behavior. In addition, it is suggested that psychological theory may itself be in danger of succumbing to a cult of celerity. Finally, implications of the cult of celerity for psychology as a discipline and for advanced culture are explored T h e message "Sorry, this will take some time" appears in emerald hues on m y compu te r screen at a point in the p r o g r a m when the pace of the processing is less than ins tan taneous . Despi te the appa ren t innocence of this d ispatch abou t dispatch, I find the apology somewha t dis turbing. T o me the message reveals a concern with celerity that can and at t imes does a m o u n t to an obsession. By 1983 when Time magaz ine p roc la imed the c o m p u t e r the Person of the Year, a cognitive revolution had already taken place in psychology and related disciplines, one of the chief features of which is the instal lat ion of the c o m p u t e r m e t a p h o r as a re ign ing m e t a p h o r for the m i n d i n d e e d , for the self. T h e c o m p u t e r m e t a p h o r for the m i n d has not r e m a i n e d conf ined within the boundar i e s of academe , but has made its way into popular culture through books such as Dennett ' s (1978) Brainstorms, Hofstadter ' s (1979) Go'del, Escher, Bach, Paper t ' s (1980)Mindstorms." Children, Corr~puters and Powerful Ideas, and Turk le ' s (1984) The Second Self: Computers and the Human Spirit. In the face of these concurrent cultural and disciplinary developments , it would seem to be no ove r s t a t em en t to speak of a cul ture-wide c o m p u t e r parad igm (Kuhn , 1970) tha t is, a set of models , beliefs, and values shared by a comm u n i t y , in this case, models , beliefs, and values shared not only by a c o m m u n i t y of scholars but by m u c h of deve loped cul ture. Earlier versions of this manuscript benefited from thoughtful reading and response by Hazel Markus, George Rosenwald, and two anonymous reviewers. Requests for reprints should be sent to Janet Landman, The University of Michigan, Department of Psychology, 580 Union Drive, Ann Arbor, MI 48109.